Policies, Laws, Regulations

Statutes, and the implementing regulations published by the Office of Government Ethics (OGE), detail the Standards of Ethical Conduct and other requirements for
Federal Government employees. In addition, HHS has regulations and policies, and NIH has additional policies and guidance documents. The documents are listed below, organized by the entity which produces the document, i.e., NIH, HHS, Government-wide.

NIH Policies and Procedures for Ensuring Scientific Integrity: Information regarding the policies that the NIH follows to ensure the highest degree of scientific integrity in the research we conduct and fund, including avoiding conflicts of interest for NIH scientists. (Document located on the NIH Research and Training page under Safety, Regulation & Guidance).

The NIH Ethics Manual is comprised of numerous chapters in the NIH Manual Chapter 2400 series. Additional chapters may be added as needed. The chapter links go to the NIH Manual Chapter web site maintained by the NIH Office of Management Assessment (OMA). See the forms page for links to the forms, and the procedures page for links to the detailed processing procedures.

The MOU describes the relationship between NIH and the Foundation for Advanced Education in the Sciences (FAES) for official interactions. It identifies the NIH DDIR as the non-voting NIH Liaison to the FAES Board of Directors and describes the appropriate procedure for initiating joint activities between NIH and FAES.

On February 3, 2005, HHS published revised Supplemental Standards of Ethical
Conduct (5 CFR 5501) and a new Supplemental Financial Disclosure Requirements
section (5 CFR 5502), both effective on that date. On August 31, 2005,
HHS published the Final Rule for both sections.

5 CFR 5501 -- Official Published format (links to table of contents on GPO website)

5 CFR 5502 -- Official Published format (links to table of contents on GPO website)

The HHS Standards of Conduct were published in a booked entitled "Standards of Conduct" on March 30, 1989 (45 CFR Part 73). Subsequently, HHS published the Supplemental Standards of Ethical Conduct (5 CFR 5501, see above links), superceding much of the original HHS standards of conduct. The remaining
sections are the "Residual Standards," applicable to activities not covered by
ethics regulations.

The above link leads to the OGE website. The OGE page contains a short description for each statute plus links to an expanded description and full text on the GPO website. The links below will provide direct access to the full text on the GPO website.

For general comments or suggestions about the NIH Ethics Program website only, send email to Christy Barnett at barnettch@mail.nih.gov.For general comments or suggestions about the NIH website, send email to nihinfo@od.nih.gov.